News18 group and it’s Editor Gunasekaran filed a defamation suit against YouTuber Maridhas on account of false accusations made by him against the network’s Tamil channel and its journalists of running an agenda and calling them ‘anti-Hindu.’

Maridhas had uploaded several videos against the media organisation, claiming that it has political affiliations to the Dravida Kazhagam and Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam. He had also personally attacked the channel’s Tamil Editor, Gunasekaran, reported The News Minute.

The YouTuber had also written a letter to the management of the network alleging religious bias and asked them to take actions against the editor and journalists.

Moreover, he started a petition on ‘Change.org’ urging people to write to the management for the same. Through his channel, he claims to expose the economic frauds and fake news committed by persons of public interest.

According to the media report, he later claimed to have received a response from one of the senior editors, admitting the mistakes and agreeing to carry out an investigation in one of the videos.

Following the allegations, News18 had approached the Chennai Police on July 12, accusing Maridhas of forging an email from a senior editor and for trying to incite hatred between religious groups.

The media organisation was forced to approach the Madras High Court after the police failed to act upon their complaint. They filed a 1.5 crore civil and criminal defamation suit against the YouTuber.

It was found out the mail Maridhas claimed he had received from a senior journalist was fake. The High Court, while attending the suit said that an individual cannot level such allegations without any proof.

Justice CV Karthikeyan directed the Youtuber to stop publishing any further videos against News18 on any social media platforms and instructed him to remove the previous four videos he had posted against the channel.

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